9.04.2005

An open letter from the Times-Picayune to George W. Bush calls for the firing of FEMA director Michael Brown. I say, take Bush with him. An excerpt:

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, [Brown] said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."

That’s unbelievable.

Brown's credentials: "The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows," writes the Boston Herald of Michael Brown, formerly an estates and family lawyer who was canned from his job as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association. The Herald continues: "And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position. The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA. "